Archaeological mystery: Ancient Elamite script from Iran deciphered?

For a long time, the writing system known as "Linear Elamite" was considered illegible. Now a team of archaeologists claims to have partially deciphered the writing system. But other researchers are more hesitant.

The ancient city of Susa in southwestern Iran. Researchers discovered items

 with Elamite writing in the area around these ruins.

Diamonds and squares with dots and dashes ― French archaeologists came across these geometric characters as early as 1903 when they were excavating ancient ruins in the city of Susa in southwestern Iran.

Researchers quickly realized that the language was one of the four oldest scripts known to humankind, along with Mesopotamian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Indus script. The Elamite civilization used the writing system during the Bronze Age in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE.

The characters were given the name "Linear Elamite." But, since the discovery, experts haven't known how to read the diamonds and squares, or understand what they meant. Only a few characters could be clearly interpreted.

Silver cups give clues to ancient writing system

Now, French archaeologist Francois Desset and his team believe that they have partially deciphered the ancient script. They used eight silver cups as a basis for the decryption, with many symbols of the Linear Elamite writing system carved into the metal.

"The cups had long been in the possession of a private collector and were only recently made available to researchers," Desset, who works at the University of Tehran in Iran and at the Archeorient research laboratory in Lyon, France, told DW.

One of the silver cups that Desset and his team used to decipher the Elamite writng

How are ancient scripts deciphered?

One common method of deciphering unknown characters is by comparing the same or similar texts in different writing systems. This way, experts can deduce the characters in the unknown script from the known one.

As an example, let's imagine that we have a text in German with the translation in Chinese directly below.

In the German version, the words "King Karl" appear often. If we now find character sequences in the Chinese version that repeat in the same places, these indicates the correct characters for "King Karl" in Chinese.

The research team around Desset used this exact method with the silver cups.

The cups had inscriptions of kings and rulers in the same language (Elamite), but in two different writing systems: the already-known Mesopotamian cuneiform script and the unknown Linear Elamite.

Step-by-step, the team was able to understand the characters using this method.

"The cups were the key we needed to decipher the writing," Desset said. "As a result, we can now read 72 characters."

Only four characters are still unknown, the researcher said.

Surprising discovery?

The real surprise, Desset said, is the nature of the writing system. Researchers assumed that Linear Elamite writing is a mixture of phonographic and logographic writing.

Phonographic characters, or "phonograms," are individual letters and syllables and represent a speech sound. Logographic characters, or "word signs," represent a whole word, the way our numerical sign of "1" stands for "one."

"At the end of my analysis, I found that Linear Elamite writing is a purely phonographic script," Desset said. "That makes it the oldest of its kind in the world ― and changes our view of the entire evolution of writing."

This tablet with Linear Elamite writing from Susa dates back to the second half

 of the third millennium BCE

Decipherment faces criticism

In the research community, however, Desset's discovery has been met with some criticism.

"Until clear evidence is provided, the Linear Elamite script is not fully deciphered," Michael Mäder told DW. Mäder is a linguist at the University of Bern and scientific director of the Swiss Alice Kober Society for the Decipherment of Ancient Writing Systems . So far, he said, there are only 15 characters with known pronunciation and 19 plausible suggestions.

"It may well be that Desset's work will add more characters to the list of suggestions," Mäder said. "But, until we know the function and pronunciation for all characters, we won't know for sure."

Mäder also has "considerable doubts" about Desset's statement that the script is purely phonographic: "Mathematical analyses show that the Linear Elamite writing system consists of only 70 percent phonetic characters," Mäder said. The rest are word signs, he added.

Whether Desset is right or not remains an open question for the time being. In October, experts on ancient writing systems will meet at a conference in Norway to discuss the discovery.

Academy unearths long-lost 'race films' in Black cinema exhibit

Andrew MARSZAL
Thu, August 18, 2022 


Long before Denzel Washington, Spike Lee or even Sidney Poitier, generations of pioneering and revolutionary Black US filmmakers played a key role in shaping early American cinema and dispelling pejorative stereotypes, a major new Hollywood exhibition argues.

"Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971," opening at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on Sunday, charts key moments in Black film history that were either ignored by mainstream Hollywood studios and audiences in their day, or have been long forgotten.

Starting with a recently re-discovered 1898 reel of two Black vaudeville performers embracing, the exhibition tells the largely unknown history of "race films" -- hundreds of pre-1960s independent movies made with Black casts specifically for Black audiences, at a time when theaters were racially segregated.

"Are you ready for the secret? That we Black folks have always been present in American film, right from the start," said Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay, at a press preview this week.

"Present not as caricatures and stereotypes, but as creators and producers and innovators and eager audiences.

She added: "We should have seen it long before now. But this is the day it begins."

"Regeneration" is only the second major temporary exhibit to be presented at the Academy Museum, which was opened by the organization behind the Oscars last September after years of delays.

It displays Poitier's historic Oscar -- loaned by his widow, from his 1964 best actor win for "Lilies of the Field" -- as well as tap shoes worn by the Nicholas Brothers, a trumpet played by Louis Armstrong, and a costume worn by Sammy Davis Jr in "Porgy and Bess."

Planning for the exhibition began back in 2016, as curators delved into the Academy's extensive archives, and found early promotional posters for movies with blurbs boasting of "An All-Negro Cast" and a "Stupendous All-Star Negro Motion Picture."

"I was surprised because I did not know about these films before we started to work on this exhibition," co-curator Doris Berger told AFP.

"I asked myself 'why don't we know about this? We should know about this!'

"They are really exciting films and great proof that African-American performers had roles in all characters, and there were many story lines.

"And plus, they just look really cool!"

- 'Harlem on the Prairie' -

Audiences can watch carefully restored footage of these movies, now known as "race films," including a Western-musical called "Harlem on the Prairie," gangster flick "Dark Manhattan," and horror-comedy "Mr Washington Goes To Town."

Many others have been lost forever, though their posters serve as "a sort of an imprint that they existed," said co-curator Rhea Combs.

While mainstream Hollywood cast Black actors at the time as "butlers and mammies, in supporting roles," this independent genre saw minority performers play "lawyers, and doctors, and nurses, and cowboys," said Berger.

"So this is proof that (Hollywood) could have been so much richer and more exciting."

The gallery ends with the early 1970s rise of the Blaxploitation genre, pioneered by Melvin Van Peebles who, like Poitier, died months before the exhibition could open.

"I hope that they would be very proud of this exhibition," Combs told AFP.

- 'Overdue' -

The exhibition is a major event for the Academy, which in recent years has had to navigate accusations of a lack of racial diversity in its ranks.

The group was also pummeled with criticism for a dearth of Black Oscar nominees during the #OscarsSoWhite movement, which emerged in 2015.

It has since fulfilled a pledge to double the number of women and minority members by 2020.

In addition to educating the public at large, the works unearthed by "Regeneration" have even surprised leading contemporary Black filmmakers.

"I was more than surprised... I didn't know about this," said director Charles Burnett.

"If I knew about this -- about the actresses, and things like that -- I would have had a different whole notion and probably approach to film."

DuVernay added: "This work had to happen. It's overdue. It's important, it's crucial work.

"This exhibition showcases the generations of Black artists [on] whose shoulders we stand."

Harlem Is Heaven (1932) | Bill "Bojangles" Robinson First Starring Role

reelblack

Bill Robinson was already a veteran of two broadway shows when he was tapped to star in this all-black cast musical in 1932. In 1935, he would begin starring opposite Shirley Temple in a popular series, but he wouldn't star in another feature film until Stormy Weather (1943) which proved to be his swan song.

The story is woven around the true life experiences of Robinson. It has to do with the adventures of a beautiful young actress (Anise Boyer)  just arrived from the south and the manner in which she is aided and befriended by Bill, star of a musical revue of a leading Harlem theatre. Look for future Oscar winner James Baskett (Uncle Remus in Song of the South) as Money Johnson.

 From The Larry Richards / A Cinema Apart Collection.

***

From Wikipedia

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949) was an American tap dancer and actor, the best known and most highly paid African-American entertainer in the first half of the twentieth century. His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology. He started in the age of minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway, the recording industry, Hollywood, radio, and television. According to dance critic Marshall Stearns, "Robinson's contribution to tap dance is exact and specific. He brought it up on its toes, dancing upright and swinging", giving tap a "…hitherto-unknown lightness and presence."[1]:pp. 186–187 His signature routine was the stair dance, in which Robinson would tap up and down a set of stairs in a rhythmically complex sequence of steps, a routine that he unsuccessfully attempted to patent. Robinson is also credited with having introduced a new word, copacetic, into popular culture, via his repeated use of it in vaudeville and radio appearances.

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Dressing The Dead: Indonesian Villagers Clean Corpses In Afterlife Ritual

08/18/22

An Indonesian family poses with a dead relative as part of a ritual celebration of the afterlife AFP / ANDRI SAPUTRA

A family on an Indonesian island poses for a photo with an elderly relative no longer able to smile, while another clan tries to dress one of their eldest forebears in khakis and a shirt.

But the eldest generation isn't stuck in a retirement home or harbouring a grudge against their younger kin -- they are dead.

In two small towns on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, residents are celebrating a days-long ceremony called the Manene.

Hundreds of corpses are pulled out and dressed in the village of Torea as part of the ritual to honour their spirits and provide offerings.

"When we do Manene, we would start by opening the grave chamber and cleaning it and its surrounding area," one of the family members, Sulle Tosae, told AFP.

"Then, we would dry the bodies under the sun before [we] change their clothes," he said.

Coffins holding the preserved bodies of their loved ones are pulled from a burial cave carved into the mountainside.

"The offerings are a symbol of gratitude from the children and grandchildren to the departed ones," Torea village head Rahman Badus told AFP.

They honour their spirits "so they can always bless the living with safety, peace and happiness," he said.

One family offered their freshly exhumed relative a cigarette, while another affixed a pair of stylish sunglasses.

A few of the bodies remain relatively intact from the mummification process while others have deteriorated to skeleton remains.

Torajans are an ethnic group that numbers about a million people on Sulawesi island.

They have few qualms when it comes to talking with an embalmed corpse, dressing them up, brushing their hair or even taking pictures with a mummified relative.

Depending on the village, the Manene is usually held every few years in July or August.

The Torajans believe spirits of the dead will linger in the world before their funeral ceremonies and will begin their journey to the land of spirits after their souls are immortalised.

The families will preserve the body until they have saved enough money for an elaborate funeral.

The deceased were previously mummified through an embalming process using natural remedies such as sour vinegar and tea leaves.

But many families now take the shortcut of injecting a formaldehyde solution into the corpse.

The disinterring is a shocking and gruesome scene for onlooking Western tourists, yet residents are more than happy to clean out the bodies, take pictures and pray for their souls.

But the village chief says some locals have gone too far.

"The bodies must be treated with the utmost respect in the Manene ritual," Badus said.

"Relatives are paying respect to their parents or ancestors and disrespect has consequences."

Greenland treads softly on tourism as icebergs melt


Camille BAS-WOHLERT
Thu, August 18, 2022 


As tourists flock to Greenland to take in its breathtaking icebergs and natural beauty, authorities are mulling ways to control crowds to protect the fragile environment, already threatened by global warming.

"It's a dream destination," said Yves Gleyze, a veteran off-the-beaten-track French tourist in his 60s as he arrived at the airport in Ilulissat.

Visitors to the third-biggest town in the Danish autonomous territory are met by a rugged, austere landscape of grey rock and sparse vegetation.

But mesmerising views of massive icebergs come into view after just a short drive.

Breaking off from the Ilulissat glacier in the neighbouring fjord, the majestic blocks of ice drift slowly by in Disko Bay, the occasional whale making an appearance.

The postcard views attracted 50,000 tourists in 2021, more than 10 times the town's population.

More than half make only a short pit stop during an Arctic cruise.

Numbers are expected to swell with the opening of an international airport in the next two years, a welcome boost to the island's revenues but also a challenge, given the delicate -- and melting -- ecosystem.

- 'Icebergs getting smaller' -

In the past 40 years, the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet, according to a recent scientific study.

"We can see changes every day caused by climate change: the icebergs are getting smaller, the glacier is retreating," said mayor Palle Jeremiassen.

Thawing permafrost is also threatening the stability of some buildings and infrastructure.

With the immaculate landscape so coveted by tourists changing, officials are determined to protect it without turning away tourists.

"We want to control the arrival of tourist ships here," said Jeremiassen, noting the risks posed by the highly-polluting vessels.

In order to protect the environment and community, Ilulissat should only welcome "one ship max per day, max one thousand tourists per ship," he said.

Recently, three cruise ships arrived on the same day, spewing out 6,000 visitors.

Jeremiassen said the town's infrastructure is not designed to accommodate such numbers, nor is it able to ensure that tourists respect protected areas, notably in the fjord.

Nearby Iceland, where the tourism industry has been flourishing for two decades, is an example of how not to do things, he insisted.

"We don't want to be like Iceland. We don't want mass tourism. We want to control tourism here. That's the key we have to find."

- Small fish -

Greenland has enjoyed self-rule since 2009 but hopes to gain full independence from Denmark one day.

To do so means it would have to get by without subsidies from Copenhagen, which currently make up a third of its budget. It has yet to find a way to stand alone financially, and for now, its main natural resource is the sea.

In Ilulissat, one in three locals live off fishing, which accounts for most of Greenland's revenues.

But climate change is having a big impact.

"Back when I was young we had pack ice we could walk on," said Lars Noasen, the captain of a tourist boat as he navigated deftly between iceberg debris in Disko Bay.

"Now the pack ice is not so solid anymore. You can't use it for anything, you can't dogsled on the ice and fish like in the old days."

In the past two decades, Greenland's massive ice cap has lost 4.7 trillion tonnes of ice, contributing to a sea level rise of 1.2 centimetres on its own, according to Danish Arctic researchers.

The disappearing ice has affected fishermen.

"The ice conditions are changing. The main fjord used to be closed off by huge icebergs and sea ice and they (the fishermen) were not able to sail in before," said Sascha Schiott, a researcher at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources.

Now they can.

Boats are also able to head out fishing year-round now, which has increased fishermen's hauls.

But the size of the fish they're catching has decreased, largely due to overfishing, says Schiott.

Ejner Inusgtuk, a craggy-faced fisherman preparing his lines in the port, disagreed and said climate change is to blame.

"The climate is too warm."

cbw/po/fg

'There is so much food that has accumulated at the port of Odesa that it's going to take a long time to clear it'

 

 2022-08-19 

 Algerian firefighters battled Thursday to rein in forest fires that have ravaged large parts of the drought-hit North African country, killing almost 40 people including 12 who died in a bus trapped by the flames. 

Truth commission faults Mexico military over 43 missing students

Issued on: 19/08/2022 - 

Mexico City (AFP) – A truth commission investigating one of Mexico's worst human rights tragedies said Thursday that military personnel bore responsibility, either directly or through negligence, in the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.

"Their actions, omissions or participation allowed the disappearance and execution of the students, as well as the murder of six other people," said the commission's head, deputy interior minister Alejandro Encinas.

The teaching students had commandeered buses in the southern state of Guerrero to travel to a demonstration before they went missing.

According to an official report presented in 2015 by the government of then-president Enrique Pena Nieto, they were arrested by corrupt police and handed over to a drug cartel.

The cartel mistook the students for members of a rival gang and killed them before incinerating and dumping their remains, according to that report, which did not attribute responsibility to the military.

Those conclusions were rejected by relatives as well as independent experts and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Encinas said that further investigations were necessary to establish the extent of participation by army and navy personnel.

"An action of an institutional nature was not proven, but there was clear responsibility of members" of the armed forces stationed in the area at the time, he said.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in March that navy members were under investigation for allegedly tampering with evidence, notably at a garbage dump where human remains were found, including those of the only three students identified so far.

He denied an accusation by independent experts that Mexican authorities were withholding important information about the case, which shocked the country and drew international condemnation.

© 2022 AFP

Danger Part Of Job In Mexico's Coal Mining Heartland

By Jean Arce with Yussel Gonzalez in Mexico City
08/18/22 

A soldier is lowered into a flooded mine in Mexico in a bid to reach 10 miners trapped inside

Water is the worst enemy of Mexican miner David Huerta, who once survived an accident similar to the one that has trapped 10 workers in a flooded tunnel for more than two weeks.

On the day of his own brush with death, Huerta saw the beam from a colleague's head lamp coming quickly towards him and the cry of "water, water!"

He ran for his life, scratching his body against the rough mine walls and hitting his head against the wooden pilings.

"Water's our worst enemy," said Huerta, 35, who spent nearly 13 years working in mines in Sabinas in the northern state of Coahuila.

His brother-in-law, Sergio Cruz, is one of those missing in the roughly 60-meter (200 feet) deep El Pinabete mine, with no sign of life since it flooded on August 3.

Authorities presume the miners inadvertently made a hole that brought water gushing in from a bigger, abandoned mine nearby.

Water is the biggest challenge facing rescuers, who have been pumping it out around the clock as part of an operation involving hundreds of people, including soldiers.

Another obstacle is that access to the main tunnel is through narrow vertical shafts that authorities say have been blocked by debris.

A sharp increase in the water level over the weekend dealt a major setback to the rescue effort.

The government now hopes to seal the leak by injecting concrete.

The coal extracted in precarious conditions from small, crudely constructed mines with lax safety standards like El Pinabete help to keep Mexico's power plants running.

There are some 67 small and mid-sized coal producers in Sabinas, according to official figures.

Between September 2020 and December 2021, the area yielded two million tons of coal for power plants operated by the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) in Coahuila.

The fossil fuel has come at a high human cost for miners, who earn the equivalent of $150-200 a week.

According to the non-governmental organization Familia Pasta de Conchos -- which campaigns for justice for 65 lives lost at a mine in Coahuila in 2006 -- about 3,100 miners have died in the area since 1883.

Even today, miners work "almost naked" underground in temperatures of around 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) without adequate ventilation, Huerta said.

They spend up to six hours a day -- their bodies cannot cope with more -- working bent over or kneeling in cramped conditions without proper safety equipment such as a mask.

"Their only equipment is a helmet and lamp," said Cristina Auerbach, director of Familia Pasta de Conchos.

Employers' lack of knowledge about the geological conditions of the mines is another major risk factor, according to workers and experts.

"They don't hire engineers. They don't make calculations. They aren't measuring production. They just take it out and sell it," said Diego Martinez, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Coahuila.

One reason for the decision to keep mining at El Pinabete could have been its particularly thick coal seam, Huerta said.

"The owner doesn't care as long as they get coal," he said.

The mine's registered concession holder has been silent about the accident and its ownership is opaque.

The government has halted activities at 27 mines in Coahuila for safety failures.

But political influence has prevented stricter controls that could have saved lives, according to Auerbach.

"The CFE exercises political control over the region because it controls all these politicians by giving them coal contracts," she said.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has vowed to find the missing miners, has spoken of local political bosses who prevent miners unionizing.

It is also rare for miners to be enrolled in social security programs.

"Most of the mines are clandestine," Huerta said.

While he no longer risks his life underground to earn a living, others feel they have no other choice.

"We've always worked in this and it's very difficult to give it up," said father-of-three Luis Armando Ontiveros, 48.

A rescuer works with a hose at a flooded mine in northern Mexico

The mine where the workers have been missing since August 3 in northern Mexico

 

A miner takes part in an operation to try to rescue 10 workers trapped in northern Mexico

Lula keeps big lead over Bolsonaro in new Brazil presidential poll

Forty-seven percent of those surveyed by the Datafolha consulting firm said they intended to vote for Brazil's ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October elections 



Issued on: 19/08/2022 

Sao Paulo (AFP) – A new poll ahead of Brazil's presidential election in October shows former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintaining a significant lead over Jair Bolsonaro, but the right-wing incumbent is gaining ground.

Forty-seven percent of those surveyed by the Datafolha consulting firm said they intended to vote for Lula, the 76-year-old leftist leader, in the first round election on October 2, the same result as last month's poll.

That represents a 15-point lead over the far-right Bolsonaro (32 percent), which is slightly narrower than the 18-point gap last month, but a significant jump over the 21-point spread in May.

Lula's strong showing in the poll means there is a small chance he could ultimately receive over 50 percent in the first round, avoiding a runoff against 67-year-old Bolsonaro.

If the election does advance to a second round, on October 30, the poll shows Lula beating Bolsonaro with 54 percent of the vote.

The two candidates, running in the most polarized presidential race in decades, are far ahead of any third-party challengers -- although center-left Ciro Gomes received seven percent in the poll.

Though the two front-runners have been campaigning for months, the official launch was on Tuesday.

Bolsonaro started with a rally in Juiz de Fora, where he was stabbed in 2018, while Lula, a former union leader, chose a car factory in Sao Bernardo do Campo as his symbolic backdrop.

Datafolha said it interviewed 5,744 people between last Tuesday and this Thursday in 281 Brazilian cities and its results include a margin of error of +/- 2 points.

© 2022 AFP

US judge sentences wildlife trafficker to more than 5 years in jail


Issued on: 19/08/2022 - 

New York (AFP) – A US judge sentenced an extradited Liberian man to 63 months in prison for conspiring to traffic millions of dollars' worth of horns and ivory from endangered rhinoceros and elephants, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Moazu Kromah, a Uganda resident, was extradited from the west African country to the United States in June 2019, pleading guilty in March of this year to one count of conspiracy to commit wildlife trafficking and two counts of wildlife trafficking, the office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said in a statement.

The trafficking plot involved the illegal poaching of more than around 35 rhinoceros and more than 100 elephants.

Williams praised the more than five-year sentence handed down by US District Judge Gregory H. Woods.

"Today's sentence demonstrates that those who are responsible for the decimation of global populations of endangered and threatened animals protected by international agreements will face serious consequences," he said.

Kromah, 49, and accomplices had buyers in the United States and Southeast Asia, trafficking some 190 kilograms (nearly 420 pounds) of rhinoceros horns and at least some 10 tons of elephant ivory from East African countries between roughly 2012 and 2019.

The estimated average retail value of the rhinoceros horn and elephant ivory was at least around $3.4 million and $4 million respectively.

During the investigation, law enforcement agents intercepted multiple packages bound for Manhattan buyers containing rhinoceros horns.

They concealed some of the animal parts in pieces of art such as African masks and statues, the New York investigators say.

Poaching is fueled by a seemingly insatiable demand for rhino horn in Asia, where people pay huge sums for a substance -- coveted as a traditional medicine -- that is composed mainly of keratin, the same substance as in human nails.

Kromah is one of five men accused of being part of the criminal enterprise.

Kenyan Mansur Mohamed Surur was extradited to the United States last year and pled guilty to trafficking and drug dealing charges, according to a June statement from Williams's office.

Guinean Amara Cherif is also in US custody and pled guilty to the charges against him in April this year.

Co-defendants Badru Abdul Aziz Saleh and Abdi Hussein Ahmed have reportedly been arrested.

© 2022 AFP